natives, who waylaid them on their passage, and killed them by
hundreds, is a question not easily determined. It may be they have
only forsaken this part of the country for a time, and may yet return
in as great numbers as ever: be that as it may, the present want to
which the Indians are subject, arises from the extreme scarcity of
those animals, whose flesh and skins afforded them food and clothing.
Their subsistence is now very precarious; derived principally from
snaring rabbits and fishing; and rabbits also fail periodically.

Their fare during summer, however, soon obliterates the remembrance
of the privations of winter: fish is then found in every lake, and
wild-fowl during the moulting season become an easy prey; while young
ducks and geese are approached in canoes, and are destroyed with
arrows in great numbers, ere they have acquired the use of their
wings. The white man similarly situated would undoubtedly think of
the long winter he had passed in want, and would provide for the next
while he could;--so much foresight, however, does not belong to the
Indian character.

Fishing and hunting for the establishment affords employment to a few
Indians during summer, and is an object of competition among them,
on account of the incomparable gratification it affords--grog
drinking--to which no earthly bliss can be compared in the Indian's
estimation. To find the Company serving out rum to the natives as
payment for their services in this remote quarter, created the utmost
surprise in my mind: no excuse can be advanced which can justify the
unhallowed practice, when the management of the native population is
left entirely to themselves. Why then is it continued? Strange to say,
while Indians were to be seen rolling drunk about the establishment,
an order of Council appeared, prohibiting the sale of ardent spirits